▲ The busy streets of Broadway. Provided by campbroadway.

  

Beautiful blond hair, gleaming blue eyes, and pale white skin – these characteristics are often the paradigm of Cinderella. One key assumption lies on the baseline: the person acting for this leading role has to be Caucasian. Even the most open-minded person would agree that they have never imagined Asians or African Americans playing the role of Cinderella. Recently, however, Broadway broke this long-held practice and casted its first black Cinderella.

Keke Palmer has debuted as the first black Cinderella in September. This created sensation

   
▲ Broadway's first black Cinderella. Provided by PR photos.
   
 

 in the public, and the media overwhelmed their front covers with this news. Keke Palmer, the Cinderella was filled with excitement when she heard the news. After Keke Palmer learned that she was chosen for the role, she soon tweeted on her twitter that “Dreams do come true!! We are brothers & sisters y’all. All colors! Peace is the answer.”

As Keke Palmer wrote, becoming the first African American playing Cinderella is a dream come true not only for her, but also for the social activists that have long dreamt of an unbiased society without racial discrimination. It denotes far more than a life-changing event for an African American girl. It symbolizes the crucial social changes that should have happened a long time ago. The new trend on Broadway reflects that American society is pulling down more of the thick walls that exist between the different races.

Although the United States (U.S.) has been referred as a melting pot of all races without discrimination, unseen walls have existed in different parts of the society. Such walls were most evident in the social media and entertainment. “Plainly put, the history of the American musical [has been] the history of white identity in the United States,” said Warren Hoffman, the writer of The Great White Way: Race and the Broadway Musical(2014). As Warren Hoffman wrote, many critics agreed that the Broadway had many problems regarding the racial discriminations.

Although the fundamental reason for such segregation that exists in the realm of social media and entertainment must be much more complex, one possible way of explaining such phenomena is that segregation may have been imprinted in people’s schema through early exposure to the media as children. Early experience is often the most essential period that could shape how people may think in the future.

For example, try to remember the ratio of racial differences of the princess that appeared in the Disney movies. Most people would probably agree that with the exception of some rare cases such as Mulan (who was actually not a princess in the beginning) or Maddy (the Frog Princess), there are not many variations. As people grow up with similar experiences, such phenomena almost become normal. In people’s minds, Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and all other princesses should be white without exception.

Of course, it is false to say that African-Americans have never played main roles on Broadway. In fact, there have been several plays such as Black and Blue in which they were cast in the main roles of the play. However, what distinguishes the role of Cinderella is that previously, African-Americans were only cast for race specific roles, roles written for African- Americans. This time, however, the role of Cinderella was no longer race specific.

Furthermore, a month before Keke Palmer became the first black Cinderella, Norm Lewis became the first black phantom in the musical Phantom of Opera. This was also a breakthrough in the Broadway. The increasing number of AfricanAmericans casts in the musicals is evident especially in the major musicals of the Broaway. Such changes in trends reflect that Broadway is making slow improvements.

Some people believe that there may be other intentions behind the cast of African-Americans for musicals. After Keke Palmer and Norm Lewis became the first African-American casts, the media was eager to put these new on their front pages. In other words, the musicals had marketing effects without much investments. Advertisement and marketing requires enormous amount of money, and companies often look for alternatives. “Musicals put more importance on marketing, and such act could also have been a marketing strategy,” said Professor Lee Kyung Mi (Institute of Foreign Language Studies).

Regardless of the intention behind the casting of African-Americans, this new trend is certainly bringing new hope that invisible discrimination is slowly disappearing. Broadway and the media are making slow improvements regarding racial issues. What remains, however, seems more crucial than the industries themselves—the reaction of the audience.

 
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